Tune Req: 'Where have you been all the night?'

Subject: RE: Tune Req: 'Where have you been all the night?'
From: GUEST
Date: 20 Mar 16 - 10:31 AM

John John, where have you been, was sung to my 89 and 87 year old mother and aunt in the 1930's by their Bradford grandmother.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: 'Where have you been all the night?'
From: Jack Campin
Date: 02 Nov 10 - 01:56 PM

"Moll Brook" is "Malbrouk s'en va-t-en guerre", which turns up under all sorts of spellings in old manuscripts.

I'd guess that "Harlequin Hamlet" is just the "Harlequin Reel" of the 1780s, though there were other "Harlequin" tunes.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: 'Where have you been all the night?'
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 02 Nov 10 - 12:10 PM

Thanx, Jack. Last knight I found myself humming "Lord Randal, but in jig time. works pretty well.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: 'Where have you been all the night?'
From: Jack Campin
Date: 02 Nov 10 - 11:43 AM

Same as "Where have you been all the day"?

The tune for that is "Highland Laddie", which would have been very well known at that time and place.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: 'Where have you been all the night?'
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 01 Nov 10 - 02:14 PM

There's apparently a Scottish dance tune of that title---anyone here know it?

Subject: RE: Tune Req: 'Where have you been all the night?'
From: Lizards
Date: 01 Nov 10 - 04:48 AM

Thanks all
- and stuff for me to follow up here too :)
Best wishes,
Lizards.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: 'Where have you been all the night?'
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 31 Oct 10 - 03:45 PM

I'm with Dick on this one. However the vast majority of Lord Randal variants that specify a time ask in the first line, 'Where have you been all day' But at least one American version has 'Where have you been this morning?' so changing 'day' into 'night' is not such a remarkable stretch as it sounds.

Another possibility is a quite scarce song, possibly a children's song

'John, John, where a' you been all night
'Down in the valley, kissing Sally,
Shooitin' monkeys, ridin' donkeys,
pickin' up cinders, breakin' winders,
I'm a boy for kicking up a row, row, row.

Sung in Bradford in the 1960s, but could be a lot older.

The 'Harlequin Hamlet' piece is most likely a pantomime piece from the mid 19thc. There was a vogue for burlesquing literature such as Shakespeare, and pantomimes were very popular then, with the likes of Sam Cowell performing potted musical versions of literature, Richard III, Robinson Crusoe etc.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: 'Where have you been all the night?'
From: Fred McCormick
Date: 31 Oct 10 - 01:17 PM

Gut feeling tells me it won't be one of the In the Pines variants, but Judith McCullough has made a study of the known versions of this song. It might be worth tracking it down and seeing whether she mentions any British antecedants.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: 'Where have you been all the night?'
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 31 Oct 10 - 12:26 PM

Most likely one of the Lord Randal variants.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: 'Where have you been all the night?'
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 31 Oct 10 - 12:09 PM

Wasn't Southern Appalachia originally peopled by immigrants from Scotland?

Lots of Scottish fiddle and bagpipe tunes definitely landed in Appalachia.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: 'Where have you been all the night?'
From: Lizards
Date: 31 Oct 10 - 12:02 PM

That was quick! Thanks for this... though since all the references to it date it, as you say, back to the 1870's in America I'm still open to offers of a tune which was popular enough in 1850's London for a street musician to have learned it quite a lot earlier - she'd been playing since early 1800's.

And I've just spotted that she said it was "A Scotch Tune".
So thanks greatly for this help, and I'll keep looking too!
Lizards.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: 'Where have you been all the night?'
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 31 Oct 10 - 08:09 AM

I don't suppose it would be

"In the Pines", also known as "Black Girl" and "Where Did You Sleep Last Night", is a traditional American folk song which dates back to at least the 1870s, and is believed to be Southern Appalachian in origin.

Subject: Tune Req: 'Where have you been all the night?'
From: Lizards
Date: 31 Oct 10 - 07:59 AM

Hello.
First post here.
In the 1850's Henry Mayhew interviewed a blind London street Hurdy Gurdy player called Old Sarah. (Proper gurdy it seems, not the barrel organ variety.)
Among the tunes she lists in her repertoire is "Where have you been all the night?"
I can't find it in a search here.
I'm discounting the obvious "Where have you been all the day, Billy Boy" as it doesn't have the right rhyme at all - maybe I'm wrong!
Any help will be much appreciated, please.

I have other requests, too, from the same list, & will obediently create a new thread for each.
In case you know them: I'm also looking for her titles:
"Harlequin Hamlet" and "Moll Brook" neither if which I've turned up in the search here either.

With many thanks,
Lizards.